What to believe?

"I don't know what to believe," Christine finished. "The only things that I can't reconcile to what I thought I knew of my husband are the camera and the vision of him with his hands around your throat. I'll never, never, be able to erase that. Never."

Christine shuddered and looked at Bethan who smiled thankfully.

"And you, you must be like an actress or something if what you're saying is not true. What...?"

Like opening a relief valve, Christine's shoulders slumped as she burst into tears. Bethan rushed over to her and, without hesitation, put her arms around her.

The two women sat, one sobbing, the other comforting, both distressed at the situation where they found themselves.

"I don't know what to do!" Christine said, when she was able to talk.

She looked at Bethan. "What should we do?"

Bethan would never have left Christine to deal with Dave on her own but coming up with a plan to end this? That was tricky.

"You mean with him?" Bethan asked, moving her foot in Dave's general direction.

"Yes."

Bethan thought about the options. "Well, we could leave him here. See if someone else finds him."

Christine's eyes widened at that.

"Or we could call the police and tell them what we know and about what happened today and leave it for justice to sort out."

Christine looked away. Could she send her husband to prison? Because that's what her testimony would surely do. She thought about Katie and the conversation she would have to have with her. Could she avoid that? She didn't think so. There was no hiding from this.

"Or we can bring him round and grill him, get him to tell the truth and then decide?"

Christine smiled. "Well, I think we do that anyway."

Her face fell again. "I just can't...I can't..." She stopped. "He was going to kill you. If I hadn't been here, he'd have killed you. How can I go back to living with someone who I know is capable of that?"

Bethan looked at Christine. "You can't."

"What am I going to tell Katie?"

Bethan didn't know.

But before she could say something in response, Dave groaned.

***

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339/366

*Folks, I've just realised that my counting is all over the place. I have no idea where it went wrong. When I have time to, I will go through all of my stories and find out what I did but for now, know that I am reasonably good at writing but not so good at adding up and forgive me this mathematical transgression.